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Socially Responsible Investment in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region></st1:place>

Patricia Crifo and Nicolas Mottis

Business Society published 8 September 2013, 10.1177/0007650313500216
http://bas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0007650313500216v1

ABSTRACT - Socially responsible investment (SRI) in <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region> is based on a "best in class" approach as opposed to the "exclusion" approaches used in other countries such as the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region> or <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United Kingdom</st1:place></st1:country-region>, where the rejection of sin stocks has been dominant historically. The objective of this research note is to examine whether the French SRI market, by focusing more on financial rather than on ethical considerations, compared with other countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, or even Sweden, may lead to a form of "mainstreaming" of SRI processes. The authors explore several convergent mechanisms. First, the authors analyze the importance of the mainstreaming issue in the history of SRI as well as in the contemporaneous debate in the academic literature on the links between financial and extrafinancial (SRI) performance. Second, the authors review the role played by ethical finance laws adopted in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the early 2000s in the development of the SRI market. Finally, the authors discuss the results of a survey of French SRI analysts working both for large institutional investors and asset managers in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region> in 2009.